By Larry Deklinski And Mark Gilger
The News-Item
THARPTOWN — A 41-year-old state correctional officer from Tharptown has been charged with 13 felonies for allegedly smuggling cell phones and marijuana to inmates at SCI-Coal Township.
Damond Lamar Johnson, who has worked at SCI-Coal Township for two years, was arraigned at 9 p.m. Tuesday by on-call Magisterial District Judge John Gembic III on three felony counts of possessing a controlled substance, five counts of contraband; four counts of criminal conspiracy to commit contraband, and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.
Johnson was committed to Snyder County Prison in lieu of $100,000 cash bail.
Johnson, who is originally from New Jersey, committed the offenses during the past year, according to Trooper Ronald Zanella of state police at Stonington, who filed the charges after interviewing the defendant for about three hours at the state prison. Zanella said Johnson was cooperative during the interview.
Johnson was escorted from the state prison shortly before 6 p.m. and transported to the state police station at Stonington to be processed before his arraignment.
Assisting Zanella at the prison were Troopers Kevin Kearney, Nicholas Berger and Cpl. Brent Zechman and several prison officials, including Superintendent Vincent Mooney. When asked to comment on the arrest, Mooney referred questions to the press office at the state Department of Corrections.
Pot and phones
According to the criminal complaint, at around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday SCI-Coal Township Captain Charles Stetler called the state police barracks in Stonington and advised Zanella that an employee, identified as Johnson, alerted the employee metal detector and that a search of his person resulted in the discovery of drugs.
Prior to the interview at the prison, Johnson was read his Miranda rights and agreed to give a statement to Zanella. During the interview, Johnson confessed to bringing drugs and contraband into the prison and providing them to three inmates.
Three meetings
Johnson said he was approached and requested by inmates “Glover” and “Ford,” of East Compound, to “bring in some work.” Johnson gave his cell phone number to the inmates to carry out this request, the complaint states. Johnson said he was contacted by an unknown caller from an unknown number and that each time he was contacted, it was a different person who gave him information as to where to meet.
The first meeting occurred at 10 a.m. in the middle of March at a park near McDonalds in Danville, where Johnson met an older (50 to 60 year old) black male who gave the correctional officer four packs of marijuana, two cell phones and $2,000 as payment for the delivery of the items to inmates Glover and Ford.
The second meeting occurred between noon and 1 p.m. in the middle of June at Red Carpet Inn, Danville, where he met an older (40 year old) Hispanic female who gave Johnson four packs of marijuana and $2,000 as payment for the delivery of the items to the inmates.
A third meeting occurred between 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m. Sept. 11 at a Sheetz near Rockview State Prison near Bellefonte, where he met a light-skinned black male who gave Johnson three packs of marijuana, which were the drugs he attempted to bring into the prison Tuesday, the complaint states.
Johnson admitted that he possessed four cell phones in his car that he intended to bring into the prison and give to Glover and another inmate he identified as Lewis. This admission was corroborated by SCI-Coal Township Lt. Brian Carpentier, who has an active investigation in which he was privy to information in regards to a cell phone being brought into the institution on or around Tuesday.
The complaint also states that a year-long investigation conducted by the prison security office discovered drugs and 13 cell phones within the prison.
A field test kit used to identify marijuana found in Johnson’s left sock tested positive.